Psalm 137 - New Revised Standard Version

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

¹ By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.

² On the willows there we hung up our harps.

³ For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴ How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?

⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!

⁶ Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

⁷ Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's fall, how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!”

⁸ O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!

⁹ Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!